I was a full-time staff writer here at Forbes for eight years covering health care.Now I work in hospital administration. I am originally from Pittsburgh but have lived in New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia. I have a bachelors degree in economics from Harvard and a masters in health administration from the University of Iowa.

2/23/2011 @ 7:16PM31,017 views

The Survivor Part 1 - Clayton Christensen: A Life In Health

Clayton Christensen beat a heart attack, cancer and a stroke in three years. In the latest issue of Forbes magazine I interviewed the Harvard Business School professor and those close to him about his experience battling these three grave illnesses. The story covers it all: life, death and a plan to fix the health care system.

Clayton Christensen, 58, is one of the most influential business theorists of the last 50 years. The Harvard Business School professor’s 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, introduced in elegant terms the notion of “disruptive innovation,” which explains how cheaper, simpler or unexpected products and services can bring down big companies like U.S. Steel, Xerox and Digital Equipment. Every day business leaders call him or make the pilgrimage to his office in Boston, Mass. to get advice or thank him for his ideas. A consulting firm he started popularizes his work, while a hedge fund run by one of his sons puts money to work betting on disruptive technologies.

One industry that always eluded Christensen’s influence was health care. Caregivers and insurers told him his theories didn’t apply to their complex industry. Christensen knew they were wrong. His investigation culminated in his 2009 book, The Innovator’s Prescription, written with two doctors. It exposed the many ways health care was broken and recommended numerous ways it can be systematized and disrupted the same way mainframes gave way to PCs and now iPhones.

Christensen’s work took on new urgency the past few years as he suffered a heart attack followed by cancer followed by a stroke. For Christensen it was not a reason to get too upset. It was another opportunity, in a lifetime full of them, to gain insight into how to make the world work better. Because of his July stroke it took a long time for Christensen to be ready to sit down with FORBES. He was in intensive speech therapy, eight hours a day at the beginning. But he graciously agreed to tell his inspiring story in January, the same month he went back to teaching. Here it is in his words, along with those of his family, friends and close colleagues.

Clayton Christensen

My dad died at age 49 from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A wonderful dad. Even back then in 1975 the probability that it would go into remission was about 80%. So I happily went off to Oxford. Once I was there for six weeks it was clear that he was in trouble. The Rhodes Trust was just marvelous. I went to talk to the warden Sir Edgar Williams and after two minutes he said, “We’ll send you home. You can come back next week, next month, next year, ten years from now.” I was with my dad for the last two months before he died. It was the most wonderful, happiest experience of my life to take care of my dad.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

A fascinating article, thanks! I wrote some thoughts about my personal interactions with Clayton on my blog Next Door Mormon http://shar.es/3d0kN Clayton is a great business leader but more importantly he is a wonderful man.

David — thanks for such an in-depth article! Like Teppo, I have the divine privilege of closely working with Clayton in his efforts to help others. Last night, he humbly laughed off my congratulations on the cover and said, “My face may be on a magazine today, but tomorrow I get to wake up, get out of bed, and find someone to help.” He is truly a remarkable man. I wrote up a few of my thoughts and reactions to the article: http://t.co/NEbS3El